4 minute read
Expanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commitment
AUNDI MARIE MOORE, Music alumna and Metropolitan Opera artist makes solo appearance in Passages FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
Illustration by CJ Davis “I HOPE ALL WHO Dewberry
School of Music EXPERIENCE IT HEAR
Commissions Two New Works by Black Composers THE NARRATION BOTH AS
The Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music presented A Song
of Freedom: Featuring World Premieres by Evelyn Simpson-Curenton
and Michael W. Nickens on Saturday, May 8, 2021 as part of Mason Arts at Home. The pre-recorded digital concert featured more than 100 students performing as part of the momentous event, celebrating unity and resilience in the face of division and uncertainty.
AN ARTIFACT OF OUR
AMERICAN HISTORY AND
The program’s world premieres were commissioned by the Dewberry School of Music from renowned composer Evelyn Simpson-Curenton and Mason’s own Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Green Machine Ensembles, Michael W. Nickens (Doc Nix). Simpson-Curenton’s world premiere of Passages featured current students from across the University Choirs, a guest solo by Mason alumna and Metropolitan Opera artist Aundi Marie Moore, and solos from current students Rosie Wright,
Case Hope, and Eliyahu Young.
Nickens’s original work, The Orator, The Abolitionist, The Man: Frederick Douglass, is based on the 1893 biography written by his great-great grandfather James Monroe Gregory, a contemporary of Douglass. His piece featured the Mason Wind Symphony, members of the Green Machine, and spoken word derived directly from the biography and Douglass’s speeches, delivered as narration by Nickens himself. Nickens shared, “As a work very much in progress (the second movement of a larger composition I am creating), I am grateful to our students collaborating with me to bring this nine-month project to life. I hope all who experience it hear the narration both as an artifact of our American history and as an opportunity to connect with the enduring issues that are being addressed today.”
AS AN OPPORTUNITY
TO CONNECT WITH THE
ENDURING ISSUES THAT ARE
BEING ADDRESSED TODAY.”
MICHAEL W. NICKENS (DOC NIX),
Director of University Life Ensembles
and Collaborative Arts, Associate
MICHAEL W . NICKENS and EVELYN SIMPSON-CURENTON
Professor of Music
MEGAN BEYER, advocate for the arts and women’s rights and a recognized leader in gender equality and cultural diplomacy.
Arts Management
Program Prepares Policy Leaders of the Future
Members of the Arts Management community joined forces to highlight opportunities for cultural policy innovations under a new presidential adminisitration and the impact of the arts in the political landscape. Nearly 100 registrants tuned in to a virtually presented Mason Arts at Home (in coordination with Arlington Forward) live event to watch a conversation between Associate
Professor Carole Rosenstein and Megan Beyer, immediate-past Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH), an advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues. The conversation offered students the chance to learn directly from a powerful and professional champion of the arts, as they consider their own careers post-graduation.
“This is the first arts policy-centered event to take place in the Arts Management Program on this level,” said Setarra Kennedy, assistant director of the program. “With the change of administrations and continuous threat of funding cuts, arts policy has taken center stage as an interest and learning area for future arts leaders.” Beyer is an award-winning journalist, commentator, and advocate for the arts and women’s rights as well as a recognized leader in gender equality and cultural diplomacy. During her tenure as executive director, she led the first official U.S. Cultural Delegation to Cuba in 2017, in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and the Smithsonian Institution.
“Because the pandemic has hit the arts and culture industry so hard, this event was important for finding our footing in the industry moving forward,” said
Anna Burklin, a second-year master’s student and graduate assistant in the
Arts Management Program who attended the event. In an interview with DC Metro Theater Arts, Emily Catherine Dugal and Hannah Gudeman, both current students, expressed hope and determination for the future of the performing arts. Gudeman said, “Arts organizations who are flexible and focused on creating art will find ways to present programs regardless of the circumstances.” Dugal imagines that “the performing arts in the next three to five years will look more diverse and innovative than ever before.”
